Tuesday, July 28, 2009

It has been said that time spent gardening is not deducted from one's alloted span on this earth.

Whether that's true or not, I one of my chief joys is gardening. In Mississippi on the grounds of God's Katrina Kitchen I had no opportunity. Here in Ambridge, my young charge brought home a cherry tomato seedling last year, and I planted it under the deck, where it thrived rather tnan died, to my delight.

This year I bought an Early Girl tomato plant and put it in the same spot.

It has taken off, growing up through the floor of the deck!

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Nights have been cool here-- we've all been wondering when summer will actually start. One side effect is that everyone has plenty of green tomatoes but very few are turning red.

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Fried green tomatoes, anyone?

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Between the walk and the side of the house was a bare, muddy spot that I had been grumbling about, while I had been buying luscious strawberries in the store.

Idea flash-- plant strawberries. But there was a run on plants this year, and I had to hit four stores to get enought plants. So now I have four different varieties of everbearing strawberries in my 3 by 12 foot "garden."

(In California, there was a time when I had a garden that was 50 feet by 150 feet. I had to rent a tractor once a year to turn over the soil in the Spring.)

The plants are mostly sending out runners, which is good. I have been counting on using it as groundcover for an otherwise muddy mess. A few are setting some small fruit, but it lingers on the plant for a long time before turning pink. I wonder if the cool rainy weather is responsible for that also.

The final hurdle will be battling the birds, who spot the faintly pink berries long before they turn red. I'll have to look for some netting if I actually want to eat some of them.

About Me

The TRILOGY of JOHN! Episodes One, Two, and Three (AD27, 28, and 29) are now available at http://rolinbruno.com! This exciting new book series reaches out to young people with the living testimony of the Gospels. I write with a heart for the least, last, and lepers of our land, and I've been working as a leader at Celebrate Recovery chapters in the Inland Empire of Southern California. I'm a retired Anglican Deacon and a retired officer in Church Army USA. I live in the California mountains and have backpacked the Grand Canyon, Mount Whitney, and 570 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. Questions? Email me: rolinbruno(at)yahoo(dot)com.